In the early afternoon sun a pair of Red-whiskered Bulbuls met in our garden. Here is how it went. I think.
So, er, do you come here often?
Who are you asking?
I’m shy I am, I’m shy.
So that’s a no then is it?
Well, you don’t look too bad….
Just a peck on the cheek, though
Geronimo!
BUMMER! Gone. 
All downhill from here 
“Aw, man. I gotta Tweet about this…”
You are very chirpy, today, Alessandro!
oops, lens envy again!
That’s so funny you do the same thing we do, talk for the animals and imagine what we believe they are likely saying. Perfect dialog for these amazing birds photographed beautifully!
Thanks Phil. They sat on the Bougainvillea for about 20 minutes. I used high speed bursts and rattled off maybe 120 frames, picking these to make the story. They are also pretty much in sequence. The 800mm lens allowed me to get these filling the frame from a distance where the birds were totally unconcerned.
I really like this series Andrew. My wife is a painter of birds, among other things, and and loves this as well.
Thanks Barry. That really made my day. Does your wife have any artwork on line I can see? If she likes painting birds has she come across Lars Jonsson – wonderful artist, His field guides are classics. Instead of uniform images of birds all looking left or right, Lars paints them as you would see them in the field. Beautifully observed. Sadly his work is now highly collectable and therefore expensive!
Fabulous photos of beautiful birds 🙂
I like your interpretation of their conversation 😀
Probably should have had a breath mint before that peck. Pretty birds…if they are going to be common they might as well be attractive.
Fortunately, or not depending on the bird in question, our pretty birds and song birds are not bothered for the pot or cage hereabouts. There are certain birds, pheasant and turkey and others, that are hunted for dinner. But land encroachment, aka development, is a big challenge to the populations and many migrating species are hunted a bit in the wintering grounds in Central American and the Caribbean.
What wonderful red knickers – very saucy 😉
Beautiful birds, I haven’t seen anything like them in Indo. All the pretty birds are caught and put into cages which makes me very sad 😦
Yes, bird markets are horrendous and I am afraid still too many birds are trapped for the pot. Here in Sai Kung people still keep song birds in a cage but it is dying out. I like my birds free flying. Whether they are wearing red silk knickers or not.
😀
Nice birds. Of course they could have been saying ‘Hasn’t that idiot got anything better to do that take our photos?’ ‘Let’s look the other way.’ ‘In fact, let’s get out of here.’ Or something like that.
I assume the male is the one with the rather snazzy coloured rear end. Where are their whiskers?
They both have red under-tail coverts and the whiskers are, well the clue is in “red-whiskered”, the cheek patches. They certainly hadn’t noticed me. Far too absorbed. This is one of HK’s most abundant species. Much under-rated.
Brill 🙂
Thanks 😊 Waiting to hear whether Anthony was knighted after his talk.